


Thirdwheel Blues

by niel4ong



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gen, M/M, Mentioned Kim Jonghyun, mentioned Ong Seongwoo/Ahn Hyeongseob
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-30 02:30:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11454120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niel4ong/pseuds/niel4ong
Summary: Jaehwan was titled the Nation's Thirdwheel by the fans. He had a good reason as to why he was always in OngNiel's way, the hot pairing of their group. As much as he hated it, he couldn't help but spending his time observing the pair fans crazed about.





	Thirdwheel Blues

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt to write the pair and see it as my contribution to this awesome fandom. Because they deserve a lot of love from us.  
> I have to put warning though, that English is not my mother language and grammar mistakes/wrong choice of words definitely to be expected here. So please keep that in mind while you're reading it. 
> 
> The timeline probably a bit off. This story happened after the pairing vote for wanna one go finished.  
> Also, I made OngNielHwan a Marvel fan here (Not too freak, just them watching Marvel movies hehe)

Kim Jaehwan didn’t believe his eyes. He blinked once, twice, thrice… but the words he found on the internet about him didn’t budge at all.

“Nation’s Thirdwheel?” he repeated the new title given to him for the umpteenth times that evening, only to earn Jisung’s snort.

Minhyun was the first to respond the wanna one’s main vocal, out of pity (and he had enough of Jaehwan’s whines), “It suits you better than _The Visual,_ to be honest.”

Jaehwan’s jaw dropped in shock like he thought a visual would look like. “It’s not that I want to be in their way! You know that! It’s an order!”

“Our fans don’t know that. They only know that you’re always getting in OngNiel’s way,” Jisung pointed out.

Jaehwan sighed, his looks now a mixed of disbelief and frustration.

Just not long ago he was known as _The Visual_ in the team (which Jisung never got tired reminding him that it was shameless self-proclaimed title and that their fans were too nice to play along with him) but now his title had changed and he didn’t really fond of it. It was all because he was always _seen_ in every recent picture of Kang Daniel and Ong Seongwoo. Not that he deliberately doing it, okay, it was intentional but he had a good reason. His new task given by the management that was to be Kang Daniel and Ong Seongwoo’s guardian.

All was started when netizen got crazy over those two people’s interaction and closeness. Their moments captured by the camera were all over internet-subtle and not- (that’s how awesome fangirls were)- and there were some oh-not-really-appropriate fanarts, fanfiction, and photoshopped images being uploaded every single day that it concerned the management that this strong ship would give negative effect to the team. Now that they’re still preparing for their album and debut.  
It also became the members’ concern that two people of the group being too close and hardly having interaction with the others. That definitely wouldn’t be good for the group’s image. So, all of them (including the problematic pair) agreed to show off some closeness as well with the others.

However, knowing how close Kang Daniel and Ong Seongwoo had been, like, everyone in the show knew by heart that they were inseparable, to the point that where you saw one of them, you could find the other nearby. Even their timing to go to the restroom was pretty much the same (it wasn’t intentional, to Kang Daniel’s defense). The management worst scenario though, they’d unconsciously separate themselves from the others during filming or photoshoots’ break time and that sometimes pictures were taken (because as incredible and handsome as they were, natural expressions and interactions were exceptional and special, fans were craving for moments at those times so they’re great promotion materials). To avoid their two-shots were captured, Jaehwan was appointed to guard them.  
By guarding was that he had to stick to one of them all the time, on and off camera (except in the bathroom, of course! No, he didn’t want to follow one of them there, thank you very much!). Jaehwan’s task wasn’t difficult at all, since he was basically around them (almost too much) during their training days. They were mostly in the same team for evaluation and he liked the guys’ company, so much more than he wanted to admit.

The management prediction was proved to be right though. For Kang Daniel dragging Ong Seongwoo away from others (just to show the older a dying plant and mourn about it together, or played with cats passed by in the worksite and Ong Seongwoo had to warn him twice not to bring it to the dorm which earned a pouty lips from the younger) was like breathing, that it was just obvious that they had to be always together. He just did it without giving it a thought, if he thinks at all, that his action was giving the others a hard time (Jaehwan to be specific).

Sometimes Jaehwan just wanted to rest with the others, having a fun conversation, joking around with the boys and team-bonding with the maknaes of the group. He couldn’t, because he had to go with those idiots and now he had to get hates from the pair’s stans (Their words sound harsh but no ill-intentions towards you and I think I found them quite fond of you being around Daniel and Seongwoo, Jisung had said to him and he did think similar, because he didn’t really feel intimidated or hated from all those comments about him being the thirdwheel and an eyesore). But still, he’d like to keep the Visual title on him, honestly speaking.

“Where are they, anyway?” Jaehwan asked to no one in particular. “While we are having such important discussion about my well-being is in big crisis because they just can’t get their hands and eyes off of each other.”

“In our room,” Jisung informed him. Ever since WannaOne formed, they had moved to different dorm and they were using one room for two people, except for Jisung and

Jaehwan that shared the room with Daniel too.

“Whoa, they’re so unbelievable!” Jaehwan shrieked.

“Aren’t you supposed to be there as well? Cameras in the dorm are rolling, you know?”

“Oh shit!” With a final cursing word, Jaehwan excused himself and ran off to his own room, leaving both Jisung and Minhyun in amusement.

“They’re so fun to watch,” Minhyun commented when Jaehwan’s figure disappeared in the end of the corridor.

Jisung smiled wide, “Agree.” But then his smile faded away as he thought of something, “Jaehwan doesn’t have to guard them anymore, though?”

Minhyun looked surprised at the older’s discovery, “You’re right, Hyung!”

As it looked even more fun, Jisung playfully danced his upper body in excitement, “Just let him be! Looking forward to the moment when he realized it!”

・　・　・

Jaehwan found both Daniel and Seongwoo in their shared room, the two of them lying side by side on Daniel’s single bed while watching a western movie. Judging by the sound, it had to be an action movie. And he heard the voice of his favorite actor, Robert Downey Jr, definitely was one of Marvel Movie. Even though he kinda figured it out as _Civil War_ and it had to be it, since _Spiderman_ movie was currently airing in theaters and it’s not strange for people to rerun _Captain America: Civil War_ movie before they go to watch _Spiderman: Home Coming_.

“You guys watching _Civil War_?” he forced himself to ask them what movie they were watching, partly to announce his presence in the room, just in case (he couldn’t risk witnessing some adult content now if they happened to do it because they thought no one beside them was in the room. Well, they wouldn't do it though, they're just platonic best friends).

Despite Seongwoo's knowledge about Jaehwan’s interest in Marvel, without inviting him to watch together, Seongwoo casually nodded as an answer. Jaehwan hummed him, trying to hide his disappointment and headed for his own bed and decided to play a bit with his guitar. He didn’t have anything to do anyway.

As his fingers touched the strings and created soft melody, and his mind was in a blank state, and the sight of Kang Daniel and Ong Seongwoo doing their thing filled his eyes, he couldn’t help but thinking, about them, about their relationship.

Since when did they get so close to each other? He remember, was it during their _Nayana_ practice? Seongwoo was one of talented and handsome trainees and he was assigned to the A class, but despite his display, he was kind of a laid back person. Like he was putting some distance you couldn’t see with bare eyes, but you could feel the wall was there. In an interview, Jaehwan recalled Seongwoo was indeed admitting feeling lonely during his first two days, but he was getting better on the third day. Wasn’t it when Kang Daniel re-evaluated into A-Class? That might be it…

On the other hand, unlike the older, Kang Daniel was basically friendly and he got close to people easily, regardless their gender and age. Not only the other trainees, but Jaehwan also knew some staffs that became friends with him. He took his dongsaengs a good care and loved by his hyungs. _Who could hate him, really?_ Even Jaehwan himself was attracted by that charm of his. So he wasn't surprised that he managed to break into the walls Seongwoo built around him.

Only, it caused the older to slowly but surely become dependent of the younger, if not too much. As a person who’s been watching them closely, Jaehwan often found Seongwoo having this longing gaze towards the younger whenever he was busy or occupied with the other trainee. It was clear to Jaehwan that Seongwoo didn’t really like it much, but the older never spoke it out loud and sometimes it was almost painful to see such a scene.

Kang Daniel was circled by a great bunch of dudes. That gave Seongwoo a chance to have more interactions in the group, to open up more and become more and more like his own self each passing day. Even though he was fine by himself and able to make friends on his own (because damn, Seongwoo was a great guy and funny and everyone loved his unique personality) but Jaehwan noted that Kang Daniel was also a big influence in this area for him.

(Oh, he had finished one song and as he was thinking about what song to play next, he saw Kang Daniel feed Seongwoo a peanut, a damn _small_ peanut, Kang Daniel’s fingers undoubtedly, definitely, touched Seongwoo’s lips. Their eyes never left the screen, too occupied with the movie, he guessed, but still, didn’t they realize what they were doing with each other??)

His fingers moved again and he just felt like singing "All I Ask" from Adele.

“Hyung, do you want some drink? I’ll grab something from the fridge,” Jaehwan heard Daniel.

“Sure, bring me some water, and don’t drink beer,” and came Seongwoo’s reply (and warn).

“Ah, hyung…”

Kang Daniel whined.

“No beer tonight. We have work early tomorrow.”

“If you say so…”

 _What??!!_ Jaehwan didn’t believe his ears. _That_ Kang Daniel, who never ever listened to people deny him a beer, easily gave in? Oh that's big news. 

“Ask the thirdwheel if he wanted some drink too!” Seongwoo said right before Daniel disappeared behind the closing door.  
The door swung open again and Daniel’s head poking inside, “Do you want something?” it was a question addressed to Jaehwan, he noticed. He shook his head and murmured a thank you before his mind busy cursing Seongwoo for calling him ‘thirdwheel’. Clearly he already read the article of his innocent self accused to be a hindrance.

“What? You don’t look happy,” Seongwoo chuckled, being playful as always, and annoying sometimes.

“That’s all thanks to you guys I am having a hard time right now,” he replied.

The conversation didn’t last long though, because Daniel came back with two bottles of water, he placed one on the bedside table near Seongwoo and opened the other for himse--- _no_ , he gave it to Seongwoo who happily accepted the ready-to-drink water and Daniel took the bottle on the table and this time, opened it for himself.

Since when did Daniel become like this towards Seongwoo? He asked himself.

All these times, he thought that it was Seongwoo who had crush on Daniel (one-sided love!), but judging by the way Daniel treating Seongwoo just now, it was definitely the other way around.

Wait, now that he gave it a deep thought and carefully analyzed the development of their relationship... was it around the time they hung out with Sorry Sorry Team and after tiring themselves out at game center and eating delicious grilled beef Jonghyun recommended, they went to Karaoke together. Kang Daniel had been drunk so much, and he sang a lot of love song and said they were dedicated for ‘my beloved Seongwoo-hyung’ as Daniel liked to address the older man. Everyone, including Seongwoo himself, took it as a drunkard joke and brushed it off that Daniel got mad and sat far far away from Seongwoo before he cried over Jaehwan's singing of Adele's "Someone Like You" (and bothering Seongwoo all the way back home with question if Seongwoo was married and happy with his wife and if he had children with her, but he accused Seongwoo a liar when the older clearly denied all his questions).

 _What a pain in the ass_. Jaehwan thought as the memory playing in his head.

After that, Jaehwan vaguely remember this one time where he was with Daniel in the practice booth. He was practicing his vocal for high notes in Downpour when Daniel barging in and panicking over the article on the internet about Hyeongseob being Seongwoo’s admirer and that netizens paired them up because they looked like _zootopia_ character. 

_I don’t think Seongwoo hyung resembles a fox. Doesn’t fit his cute image, don’t you think so? Not that I have dissatisfaction towards foxes but he’s more of a seal person, I told you._

What made him think Jaehwan would give it a damn it was just a fucking article for fuck’s sake.

However it was enough to represent his disagreement about the possible relationship blooming between Ong Seongwoo and Ahn Hyungseob. And how could he fail to realize such a big hint despite his high IQ ( _who knows?_ And he grinned at the thought).

Jaehwan’s train of thoughts were disturbed by shuffling sound from Daniel’s bedsheet, he decided to check on what the two guys were doing, and seemed like they’ve finished watching the movie and cleaning up the messy bed from their previous activity.

 _Oh shit_ , that came out wrong, by activity he meant that the bed was messy because the snacks wrappers were scattered around when they were watching the movie. Mostly it was Seongwoo who did the cleaning though, because Kang Daniel was occupied with his phone.

“Hyung, should we go watch _Spiderman_ next Saturday?” Kang Daniel asked the older without leaving his eyes from his phone. It seemed like the younger checking out the movie schedule.

“Sounds good, we don’t have any schedule for that day.”

“Alright, I’ll reserve seats for us.”

 _Eh, wait? Movie? Just the two of them? They’re joking right??_ Jaehwan panicked inside his head, thinking about the consequences if they were to be seen going out together, just the two of them, even more, to a movie?

_He’s supposed to tag along with them, right? That’s right! They weren’t allowed to go without him, that’s what the management decided._

“Aren’t you guys going to bring me along with you?” Jaehwan asked.

“You wanna come?” Seongwoo raised an eyebrow, implied a question as to why they want him on their _date_. And that, somewhat _hurtful_. Damn Ong Seongwoo and his wicked tongue.

“It’s not that I want to come, but I have to come with you. Your _guardian angel_ here, remember?” Really, Jaehwan did try not to sound too desperate for his own pride because, it’s not that he really want to watch _Spiderman_ because of course he could go anytime with whoever, he just had to flick his finger and his wish would come true. Easy peasy.

He’s Kim Jaehwan, for God’s sake.

Kang Daniel smirked (which Jaehwan rarely saw, sometimes he genuinely thought that Seongwoo gave a bad influence to the pure-heart Daniel, he was nothing but smiley faces!), “We have a deal with the manager. We’re bound to be free if we won the pairing vote.”

“We won, so you’re no longer our _guardian angel_ , remember?” Seongwoo added, emphasized the word guardian angel to mock him.  
_Oh right! The wanna one go pairing vote. They’ve won it. Oh what the hell? He was all angry all evening for nothing? Why did he even here right now? Why didn’t Jisung-Hyung or Minhyun-Hyung say anything?_ He comically threaded his fingers into his hair in frustration, realizing that he was just being played around by the hyungs he put faith in the most in his entire life.

But he didn’t regret staying here with these two guys, if it meant he could finally see that his two best friends were actually mutually pining for each other. It just the matter of time before they realized each other’s feelings and their romance wasn’t coming off of fans’ imaginations that they put into fan works.  
_Well, maybe all they need was a little push from people around them? Maybe as their ex-guardian angel, he could do something for them too? He didn’t mind to be cupid next time!_

Just thinking about that, got him grinned from ear to ear.

“Jaehwannie, you’re so creepy right now,” Seongwoo made this cringed looks and earned a chuckle from Daniel.

He didn’t care though. He just felt happy right now. He was grateful he was here to watch over these two idiots, and secretly envied what they had.

 _Being their thirdwheel wasn’t that bad._ He honestly thought.

 

・　・　・End・　・　・

  
**Extra**

Kang Daniel and Ong Seongwoo stood next to the cinema gate five minutes before the _Spiderman_ Movie they’d been looking forward to for the whole week started. Buttered popcorn, Seongwoo’s favorite, in Daniel’s hands, and three cokes in Seongwoo’s hands. They were standing side by side, leaning to the wall. Their similar height caused their shoulders to touch each other’s. It was too comfortable and somewhat intimate, it's so painful. But their relationship allowed some skin ships and little chaste kiss here anf there, so it was ok to lean in towards Daniel. And Seongwoo did. Mumbling a word like he was a little tired, just to reason his action.  

“You Ok, Hyung?”

Seongwoo nodded, and mumbled a don’t-worry softly.

Waiting wasn’t Seongwoo’s strong virtue, Daniel knew, and he noticed that his hyung was slightly, just _slightly_ , irritated when the person they were waiting for finally came and made it just in time.

“Sorry, sorry train!” said Jaehwan, trying to seek for forgiveness by being funny (nice attempt but Seongwoo isn't up for that at the moment). Seongwoo angrily shoved the cokes to him.

“Bring them for me.”

“Yes, sir!”

Daniel was only laughing, and Jaehwan was sure that he definitely spread wide smile across his handsome face behind his mask ( _They're celebs now, so wearing a mask is a must_ , Jaehwan kind of proud as he also adjusted his own mask).

“Yay, _Spiderman_!” Jaehwan screamed as he came in between his two bestfriends ( _soon to be a couple, hopefully_ ) and proceed to walk that way.  
_If he was to be called thirdwheel for the rest of his life, he had to do it right after all. Right?_

・　・　・Really End, I swear!・　・　・

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and constructive criticisms are welcome! Any kind soul offer to proof-reading this (and or my future work) is really appreciated (or just simply brainstorming with me, that's fine too!)  
> Thank you.


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